Customer Reviews

Symphonic SD200E DVD/CD Player

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The symphonic SD200E. is a good budget dvd player,for your non videophile friends...The machine is produced by Funai,the company that makes sylvania products ...If you dont have high expectations,you will be very happy...This brand has been more reliable,than other lesser name brands...The bottom line this dvd player works well,while many other units fail...If it breaks you throw it away...This unit makes an excellent christmas gift.4 star rated...Thank you stewart L.

I bought this DVD player as a secondary player for watching DVDs in my bedroom when I didn't want to sit in my living room. I've got it hooked up to a small tv so I didn't need the greatest graphics and it has done a great job so far. Another benefit is it's small size. I've played a few store bought DVDs and had no problems so I'm not sure what the other reviewer was talking about.

This is a great little DVD player if your purposes are limited to playing original, commercial DVDs- especially if you are space conscious. It is small and weighs next to nothing.

The picture quality rivaled my more expensive DVD player when compared on my 21 inch LCD TV. I did not test it on a big screen TV. Hopefully, somebody who spends $1,000+ on a big screen will have the sense to spend more than $40 on a DVD player.

If you are looking for something that can play homemade DVDs or back-ups of commercial DVD's, this might not be the one for you. My SD200E struggled with most DVDs that were on DVD-R media. It either would not recognize the disc or it would sputter as it played making it quite unwatchable. The specs say it will play DVD-R, so maybe I just had a bad unit.

If it performed better on DVD-R media and had a back-lit remote, I would have given it 5 stars.

There is always something special about this DVD player. First released in June 2004, after one and a half year later, there have only been very very few reports of broken units out there by owners. Funai is the manufacturer of the Symphonic SD200E DVD player, and Funai did an excellent job designing it. Don't be fooled by the plastic shell cover. It's the lightest and the most reliable DVD player you can get for under $40. It's five times more reliable than Cyberhome. I own a Magnavox MSD124, which is very similar to Symphonic SD200E but with progressive-scan, and I have nothing but trouble-free DVD viewing also for 1.5 year now. Picture quality is excellent. It uses the same video chip and DVD drive mechanism found in Denon DVD players, and most of the Denon DVD players are made by Funai (didn't know that, huh).

It is a good little player no great thrills, however the entire outside shell is plastic other than that it works good, picture quality is good for the price.

I bought two of these DVD players for my sons (9 and 15) to use in their rooms (Christmas presents). They are easy to install, the remote is practical and easy to use and as another reviewer pointed out, it takes AA's instead of the more expensive AAA's. We had to buy an adaptor for my 9-year old's ancient TV, but, once it was installed, he decided that he didn't want his VCR anymore, so he unhooked everything and then re-hooked the DVD player by himself without telling us. If you have an old TV, order the adapter here, because it was $29 at Radio Shack. The DVD player is small, flat, and neat in appearance. I don't think it feels cheap at all, but I'm not an electronics junkie. So far, they have played every DVD (netflix, and store-bought) requested and my 9-year old has discovered functions on the remote that his parents didn't know about in two years of DVD playing.

We got this DVD player a year ago for Christmas and have had nothing but trouble free DVD viewing since then; in fact, my in-laws current DVD player went out and the cost for the repair shop to even look at it is $35 so, they are getting this one for Christmas this year . . . why repair when it can be replaced for less?

We have used the dvd player for a week or two now and it plays wonderfully. It actually plays better than our more expensive combo unit, which freezes up all the time. We don't know about durability, but at $29 I will be pleased if we can get a year or more out of it.

I bought 2 of these for my kids for Christmas. Neither would play a 100% authentic store bought DVD. The screen would flicker and eventually turn blue all the while, NO SOUND.

I tried both players and also tried them hooked up to different TV's just to rule out the possibilities.

Needless to say, these are going back and I will do what I should have done in the first place and spend a little more money to get something that works!

Don't waste your time money or effort on this piece of crap!

This dvd is 100x times better then the Cyberhome Trash, I went through 3 of those that didn't work so I got fed up and went in search of another low cost dvd player. I don't need anything fancy its just for my bed room in case I want to finish a dvd I could not watch on the big screen. I remembered that I had a tv from Symphonic and it worked for over 9 years so I figured it had to be better than Cyberhome. So far no problems. Also this is nice because the remote is full size and uses AA batteries.